I nodded slowly. “Right, I kind of figured that’s what you meant.” His friend was cute in an awkward sort of way. I wondered if it was just this time because Storm seemed to be dominating the scene or if he was always like this.
“Yeah, duh,” Tony said, slapping himself on the forehead.
In all honesty, I desperately wanted someone else to live here with me. I was spooked at the best of times and terrified of my own shadow at the worst of times. Why I stayed was still beyond me. But with these guys here, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
“Right now we’re living in a bunker,” Storm explained. “Not together,” he added quickly. “I mean, sort of together, but not in the same room. We’re not gay. Totally hot for you.”
Tony elbowed him in the side and Storm shoved him back, nearly sending him back to the bushes.
“Um, well I have rooms available, but this place hasn’t been used in about forty years. It’s pretty run down. But the estate is pretty big. Would you like to take a look?”
“Yes,” Storm grinned widely. I stepped back and they followed me inside. I took a look at what laid before me and grimaced. Would they still want to stay when they saw what the inside looked like? The main part of the house was the most livable. The kitchen was straight to the back of the house, and there was a living room and dining room that weren’t in terrible shape. But the staircases on either side of the foyer were rotting and you had to be careful where you stepped. In fact, at the top of the stairs, there was a whole section of banister that was missing. The east wing was where they would be staying with me, but the west wing was in terrible shape and smelled like piss and death.
“Well, the east wing of the house is probably the most livable right now, but the west wing is a mess.”
“And where do you stay?” Tony asked.
“Um, I’m in the east wing.”
“And will you be renting rooms out to other men, I mean, guests?” Storm asked.
“Not at this time. I’m…I’m not sure what I’ll do with the place yet. I was just interested in the history of this place.”
“Why? What’s the history?” Tony asked.
“Well, this place used to be an insane asylum. It closed down in the early 80’s. Someone bought it about twenty years ago, but they didn’t do anything with it.”
“And now you plan to renovate it for what?” Tony asked.
“I’m not sure yet.”
I wasn’t planning on renovating it at all. I just didn’t want anyone to know what I was looking for. Renovating was a good excuse and would keep them busy and off my back, but close by in case I got scared.
“You know, this land is worth a lot of money,” Storm said. “Reed Security would be willing to buy it from you. That’s where I work,” he clarified. “This is a lot of land to just sit empty.”
“It’s not empty.” I felt like I was being pushed up against a wall, but then Storm held up his hands in a placating gesture.
“I didn’t mean any disrespect. It’s just something to keep in mind while you’re renovating.”
I would definitely keep it in mind. Maybe if I rented to them and could keep them interested in the property, I could offload it on them when I found what I was looking for.
“I’ll consider it. This definitely isn’t someplace I’d like to live forever.”
“Why is that?” Storm asked.
“Well, you know,” I laughed uncomfortably. “It’s an insane asylum and weird things have been happening.”
“Like what?”
I glanced at Tony and noted the nervousness of his stance. He was probably the one that would believe me between the two of them. “Things moving when I’m nowhere near them. Doors slamming down the hall. Just…really strange things that I can’t explain.”
“Ghosts?” Tony asked, almost paling in the dim lighting.
“I wouldn’t say that, but…” I looked around the strange house and swallowed, wondering if I could really stick it out here. “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for the things that have happened.”
“But…” Tony swallowed hard, “the people that lived here, they’re all dead.”
“Well, I’m not sure what happened to the people that were housed here. It was a long time ago.” But I planned to find out. My grandmother was here for almost twenty years, supposedly because she went insane after she was raped. I wasn’t buying it. Not after the other things I had found out. And there had to be a way to find out what happened inside these walls.
“Don’t tell me you believe in ghosts?” Storm laughed.
Tony snorted, laughing slightly, like he was trying to go for nonchalant, but then he swallowed hard. “I’m not saying that they’re real, but can you prove that they don’t exist?”
“You’re telling me that you believe there are people walking around us, just waiting for…for what?”
“To move on,” I said. “Maybe they have unfinished business or they just don’t know how to move on. Maybe they’re waiting for a loved one or can’t bear to leave Earth yet.”
“You’re serious?” Storm asked.
I shrugged, not sure why I was even having this conversation with him. “I’m not saying there are ghosts here, but I do believe it’s possible they exist. I’ve just never seen one myself.”
“So, if this place was haunted,” Tony asked nervously, “would you say they’re friendly?”
“Like I said, this place used to be an insane asylum. I feel like there are a lot of secrets here that I’ll discover along the way.”
Storm looked around the place thoughtfully and I was beginning to feel like I was about to lose my renters. Now that I was so close to having them, I was terrified they would walk away. I hadn’t realized how much I wanted someone else with me in this house until they made the offer.
“Were you still interested in the rooms?”
“Yeah.” When Storm gave me a small smile I let out a small breath of relief and smiled back.
“Great. Let me show them to you.”
I led them down the hall to the east wing and opened one of the doors. “They’re not much right now, but they’re spacious. Some of the rooms have bathrooms attached, but if you pick a room without an attached bathroom, there are a few down the halls.”
“I’ll take it,” Storm said quickly, before he had even looked around the room.
“Me too,” Tony chimed in, smirking at his friend. What the hell was going on?
“Um, did you want the room with a bathroom or just the room?”
“Bathroom,” Storm replied. “I have a hard job. Like I said, I work at Reed Security.”
I had heard of Reed Security since I moved into the area, but I also knew that this guy was trying to impress me. They both were. And based on their builds, I would guess that they both had hard jobs. Still, I wasn’t above putting these guys in their places.
“Oh, wow!” I placed my hand on my chest and looked at him in shock. “I bet that’s so stressful.”
“It is, but I get by,” he said, tucking his thumbs into the waistband of his jeans.
“I’m sure that walking the mall and catching all those little rascals trying to shoplift wears on you.”
“No, that’s not what-”
“Of course.” I widened my eyes conspiratorially. “I’m sure you also have to deal with all those people that show up at the mall early to walk. Don’t you just want to smack those little old ladies that think the rules of the mall don’t apply to them?”
“I don’t walk the mall,” he said irritably.
“Don’t worry,” I winked. “I’m sure that watching from the cameras in the back is good enough. I mean, security isn’t a real job anyway, right?” I snorted.
I turned and walked away before he could respond, but I didn’t miss him saying to his friend, “What the hell just happened?”
“You got schooled.”
“Shut up, Tony Tacos.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Storm
&
nbsp; “How’d it go?” Cap asked as Tony and I walked back into the conference room. Coop, Craig, and Rocco had seen us come in and followed like puppy dogs.
“Yeah, who got Jessica Rabbit?” Rocco asked. “Do I still have a shot?”
“It would have been me,” Tony grumbled, “but Thunders over here shoved me into the bushes.”
“Thunders?” I asked in confusion.
“Yeah, Thunders. You know, because you’re Storm. Thunderstorm? I shortened it.”
“Real genius there,” I said, completely unimpressed by his nickname for me.
“Hey, if I have to be Tony Tacos, then you can handle being called Thunders.”
Rocco banged on the table to get our attention. “Hey, nobody gives a shit about your nickname. You’re Thunders now. Deal with it. Now, can we move on to more important matters?” Tony and I shared a glare. “Good. Now, were her tits really that magnificent in person?”
Tony took a seat and leaned back in his chair, fingers intertwined behind his head. “So much better. They were fucking perfect. She had them covered up, but I could still tell that those are definitely some tits that I wouldn’t mind shoving my face in.”
Cap sighed and plopped down in his chair. “I forgot what it was like to work with all single guys. Everyone else is married or on their way. I don’t have to hear this shit about tits around them.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Cap. I forgot that we had to be more conservative in our talk around your delicate ears,” Rocco laughed.
“I have to agree with him,” Coop spoke up. “I have a sixteen year old daughter and there’s no way in hell I want any dickhead talking about her in such a crass way.”
“So, when you find a woman and you want to fuck her,” I asked, “are you going to tell her she has beautiful breasts that should be worshipped like a Greek goddess?”
“You just wait,” Coop grinned. “You’re gonna have a daughter one day and then you’ll be thinking the same thing.”
“You still haven’t said what you thought of her,” Craig said to me.
“She’s…” God, fucking gorgeous was an understatement. So much prettier than I remembered. And that hair, so fucking red and such a turn on. She had that sexy look on her face that was actually nothing like Jessica Rabbit. She always looked like she’d had too much plastic surgery. But Jessica? Hell, her full lips and high cheekbones, something I had never fucking noticed before, were now the only thing I could think about. And don’t even get me started on those eyes. The same fucking color as mine. It was like looking in a goddamned mirror. But that ass…hell, that was something that had me drooling all over the fucking place. I’d never seen a woman with a true hourglass figure, but she had it in spades.
I cleared my throat, realizing that I had drifted off with my thoughts. “She’s fucking beautiful, but you could have warned us about what we were in for.” I shot a glare at Cap, but he just grinned.
“I wondered how long it would take you to find out.”
“Find out what?” Coop asked curiously.
“She bought an insane asylum. That’s what we’re trying to get from her.”
“Why is that a bad thing?” Rocco asked.
“I’m sure a building that old has some eerie qualities to it,” Cap said, shrugging off my concern.
“Why is this a bad thing?” Craig begged for an answer.
I leaned forward in my chair, daring Cap to keep fighting me on this. “She flat out told us that she’s heard things that she can’t explain. She’s fucking nuts.”
It was a shame. It was what I had warned Coop about in the bar. We always attracted the crazy ones, and Jessica was most definitely off her rocker if she thought there were ghosts hanging around the estate.
“Hearing things doesn’t make her nuts,” Cap shrugged.
“Would someone please tell us what the fuck is going on?” Coop said.
I stared at Tony, waving my arm for him to go ahead. “By all means, explain to them the situation we’ve got on our hands.”
Tony looked at the other guys, eyes wide as he swallowed. “It’s a haunted house,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
Everyone was silent, and then they all burst into laughter. Cap just chuckled along with everyone else.
“You’re shitting me,” Craig laughed, but Tony just stared at them. “You’re serious?”
“She said the place used to be an insane asylum,” he continued. “She’s heard noises, doors slamming when she’s down the hall. Things moving when she was nowhere near them.”
“So, basically we’ve got a really crazy, hot chick on our hands,” I surmised.
“And you’re going to stay there?” Craig asked incredulously.
“There’s no such thing as ghosts. Come on, guys. Even if there were, we take out men that could actually kill us every day. Ghosts are harmless in comparison.”
“I don’t know,” Rocco said, studying the table. “Have you ever seen the movie Ghost? Patrick Swayze wasn’t trained like us, but he killed that guy just the same.”
“That’s because it was all fake,” I said in disbelief. “He’s an actor. He didn’t actually kill anyone and he wasn’t really a ghost. That little box that was in front of you? That was a television. It’s something that plays shows that have make believe people played by actors. None of it was real. Come on,” I laughed, unable to believe that these guys were serious.
“And what about all these shows with ghost hunters that you see on tv?” Coop asked. “They use cameras and shit that we would use to detect people in buildings. How would they show heat signatures if ghosts aren’t real?”
“Here’s a better question for you,” I said. “How do they pick up heat signatures from ghosts? Since ghosts are dead, they have no body heat. There’s no blood running through their veins.”
“Exactly,” Tony said, snapping his fingers at me. “That means they’re real.”
“No, that means that someone is fucking with you because you automatically believe that they must be real. It’s all a hoax, designed to drag you into this bullshit because it sounds logical when they explain it.”
“Fine, then you have no problem moving in there,” he said, looking at me smugly.
“Hell no, I don’t have a problem. Because ghosts don’t exist.” He snorted and I leaned forward, “And you’re going to move in there too, right? Because you aren’t actually afraid of ghosts, are you?”
He clenched his jaw and glanced around the room at the other guys. “This is your assignment.”
“You’re right,” I gave in. “This is my assignment, with the hot chick that as you say, could be in danger at this very moment. It’s a good thing that she has a strong man to protect her, that isn’t scared of people that don’t really exist.”
“You’re such an asshole, Thunders,” Cap said, shaking his head.
“Glad that caught on,” I replied, not liking the new nickname.
“Just keep in mind what the real job is,” Cap reminded me. “We need that property.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m all over it. I’m not some pussy that can be scared away by someone’s overactive imagination.”
“I think he just threw down the gauntlet,” Craig said to Tony.
“Fine, I’m in.”
“May the best man win,” I grinned at him, “and not be killed by a ghost.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jessica
I was filthy. After searching this entire room for any clues as to what really happened here all those years ago, I still came up empty. All I found were old file boxes with patient admittance forms. The boxes had been covered in so much dust and I had sneezed enough that I was sure I was bleeding internally.
I couldn’t believe that I had been lied to for so many years by my family. It was the only thing that made sense. Elsie was such a nice old lady and I hadn’t felt at all that she was lying to me. Not like I had when my family spoke about my mother and grandmother.
My family had always been ver
y good to me, but I always felt like I was one wrong move away from a straight jacket with them. And now that I knew my great-grandfather’s involvement was more villainous than I ever knew, I wondered what exactly had happened with my mother.
I had known that something wasn’t right about the way she died. She never showed an ounce of anxiety or depression. Not that she couldn’t have had it. I knew that just because people didn’t show the signs didn’t mean they didn’t have it. Still, in the twelve years that I lived with her, I only knew a loving mother. She dropped me off at school every morning and picked me up every afternoon. We read books together and played at the park. We had picnics and went to museums. It was just the two of us, but I never felt like a distraction to her in any way. I was always her number one priority.
When my great-grandfather picked me up from school one day instead of my mother, I knew something was wrong. I barely knew the man. We had spent a few holidays together, but the man was old and kind of curmudgeonly. He wasn’t mean to me, but he never really showed me any kind of affection either. The way he told me that my mother was ill and had to go off to spend some time with doctors was cold and unfeeling. You would never guess that he was talking about his own grandchild. But he was my great-grandfather and I chalked it up to his age.
I went off to live with a distant cousin and it was okay. They were good to me, but they always looked at me like any moment I would jump off the deep end. Which I thought I might have when I found out my mother was dead. I was devastated. I had asked for years to go visit my mother, but they always said they couldn’t afford it. When I got a job babysitting, I offered to pay for the cost of travel, but then she wasn’t well enough for a visit. I never really forgave myself for not finding a way to visit her during those six years after she was sent away.
After my great-grandparents died and I inherited everything, I enrolled in college and got my degree in interior design. It was good enough, I supposed, but I always wondered why things were so screwed up in my family. Were we really that insane? How had tragedy seemed to follow us wherever we went?
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